Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster is hitting theaters this summer. It is, of course, The Odyssey. The movie is an adaptation of an ancient epic poem written by Homer (probably — more on that below).
For those of you who haven’t yet read Homer’s masterpiece, or who have only dim memories of it from long-ago classrooms, we wanted to bring you a primer on exactly what you’ll be walking into when you sit down in front of that IMAX screen.
Note that Nolan’s film is sure to differ in some ways from the source material. Time’s new interview with Nolan lays out several of the major changes. Among these is a bigger role for Odysseus’ long-suffering dog Argos, who in the poem appears in just one short — but absolutely gut-wrenching — scene.
With that in mind, dry your tears, pick up your swords, and get ready for a crash course in the basics of The Odyssey.
When Does The Odyssey Take Place?
The events of the epic span a decade-long period, starting just after the Trojan War. While scholars are uncertain if there was an actual, real-world Trojan War, the story is set somewhere around the 13th or 12th century BCE. Homer’s epic was, it is believed, written several centuries later, sometime around 2,700 years ago.
What’s the Deal With the Trojan War?
The Trojan War was a conflict between the Greek city-state (or “polis”) of Troy on one side; and pretty much all the rest of the Greeks on the other. You’ve probably heard about the inciting incident: Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, was married to Menelaus, the king of the Greek polis of Sparta. One day while Menelaus is away, Paris, a young prince from Troy, comes to visit and either seduces Helen and convinces her to come back to Troy with him, or perhaps kidnaps her — Homer’s take leans towards the former.
There is some mythological backstory to this involving Paris, an apple, and a beauty contest among goddesses. It’s a story that Homer’s original audience would have known, though it’s only briefly mentioned in his work. You can read about that here.
Anyway, Menelaus is understandably upset about the whole wife-stealing business, so he gets his brother Agamemnon to lead a whole ton of troops to Troy to sack the city and get Helen back — hence Helen’s often-quoted status (taken from a 17th century Christopher Marlowe poem) of being “the face that launched a thousand ships.” The war lasts ten long, bloody years before the Greeks ultimately triumph.
The final year of that conflict is covered in The Iliad, Homer’s other great epic. Odysseus, the central figure in The Odyssey, is a supporting character in that one.
What Is The Odyssey About?
The Odyssey is, as the name implies, a story about a man named Odysseus, who is a king on the Greek island of Ithaca. It’s the story of his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War (which, remember, had already kept him away from home for a decade). He’s trying to get back to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, all of the young rich men on the island are taking advantage of Odysseus’ absence, assuming him long-dead. They’re hanging around his palace all day, eating him out of house and home. More troublingly, they are all courting Penelope, who is doing her best to resist. But as time passes, she’s running out of excuses for putting off remarriage.
These are the two main strands of The Odyssey: Odysseus’ journey home, and what’s happening back in Ithaca. The journey is filled with lots of episodes you may have heard of: Odysseus sailing past the Sirens and their tempting song; matching wits with a huge, angry Cyclops; seeing his loyal men turned into pigs by a goddess; deciding whether to face Scylla or Charybdis; and a lot more. He frequently has the goddess Athena (played in Nolan’s movie by Zendaya) looking out for him.
In the Ithaca section of the story, Telemachus leaves home to go on his own Athena-guided journey to find out what happened to his father; and Penelope (who is as determined and clever as her famously wily husband) is scheming to avoid marrying any of the rich brats who won’t leave her alone. Eventually, Odysseus finds his way back to Ithaca, but it’s not at all smooth sailing even then. He has to figure out how to overcome a small army of suitors more or less by himself.
Interestingly, in Homer’s poem, almost all of Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca is told to us by him, as he recounts the tale to a roomful of people at one of his many stops. And if there’s one thing we come to learn about Odysseus over the course of the story, it’s that he’s extremely good at lying to people and tricking them. So did all of those crazy things really happen?
What About the Trojan Horse?
If you know one thing about the Trojan War, it’s that there was a giant wooden horse that the Greek soldiers hid in, as a ruse to get inside of Troy’s walls. That incident doesn’t show up at all in The Iliad, and is only briefly recounted in The Odyssey. It appears to be dramatized in Nolan’s film.
Who Does Travis Scott Play?
The Time article says that Travis Scott is playing a bard. This likely means that he’s playing Demodocus. Demodocus is a poet on the island of Phaeacia, who often hangs around the court of the king Alcinous.
In The Odyssey, Demodocus sings three songs, and we see Odysseus’ reactions to them. One of them is a funny mythological story about some gods having an affair. But the other two recount aspects of the Trojan War, including the story of the Trojan horse. What’s most notable about this is Odysseus’ reaction to hearing about the war in which he just fought. He doesn’t smile about his wartime triumphs, or listen stonefacedly, which would be the best move since he is at this point trying to hide his identity. Instead, Homer uses a striking gender-reversed simile [here rendered in Robert Fagles’ translation] to describe the hero’s reaction to Demodocus’ song about the Trojan horse:
[G]reat Odysseus melted into tears,
running down from his eyes to wet his cheeks. . .
as a woman weeps, her arms flung around her darling husband,
a man who fell in battle, fighting for town and townsmen,
trying to beat the day of doom from home and children.
Seeing the man go down, gasping for breath,
she clings for dear life, screams and shrills—
but the victors, just behind her,
digging spear-butts into her back and shoulders,
drag her off in bondage, yoked to hard labor, pain,
and the most heartbreaking torment wastes her cheeks.
So from Odysseus’ eyes ran tears of heartbreak now.
Demodocus is thought by some to be Homer’s winking insertion of himself into his own story. The bard is blind, which is something many through the centuries have thought was also true of Homer. But in a Nolan-esque historical twist, the whole idea of Homer being blind may have in fact just come to us from this character.
So, Who Was Homer?
The identity of the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey has been debated for literally thousands of years. Without getting too far into any one theory, it’s now generally accepted that both stories began as oral epics, and were only written down later on. Whether they were written down by the same person is also still debated. It is unclear whether there was ever such a person as Homer. If there was, nothing is known about him besides what the texts themselves tell us.
What Roles Are the Rest of the Stars Playing?
Not all of the cast has been announced. Here is most of what’s been confirmed. There are a lot of parts, so we won’t run through everyone. You can find more details here.
Matt Damon is Odysseus. Anne Hathaway is Penelope. Zendaya, as mentioned, will be playing goddess and FOO (friend of Odysseus) Athena. Lupita Nyong’o is playing both Helen and Helen’s sister Clytemnesta, who is married to Agamemnon. Yes, two sisters are married to two brothers. If you think that’s weird, don’t even ask about the Danaides.
A side note: What happens between Clytemnesta and her husband after the war serves as a dark counterpoint to the Odysseus/Penelope relationship. That same Clytemnesta/Agamemnon relationship is also the basis for a classic written several centuries after The Odyssey: Aeschlylus’ Oresteia trilogy. This series of three plays, the only surviving trilogy from the golden age of Greek drama, begins with Agamemnon’s return home from the Trojan War.
Charlize Theron plays Calypso, a goddess who falls in love with Odysseus and traps him on her island. Jon Bernthal is Menelaus, and Benny Safdie is his brother Agamemnon. Elliot Page, Corey Hawkins, and others will appear in not-yet-announced roles.
